Date: 1972

 

Description: This program is from the first season of the Sioux City Musketeers. The Musketeers are the only surviving hockey team from Sioux City, following the Sioux City Sunhawks (1951-1952) and the Sioux City Eagles in the 1960s. The Musketeers won their first home game in this season against the Chicago Warriors, and finished the year at 16-26. Not a superb record, but the games, held at the Municipal Auditorium, were very popular. Though this program is for a game with the Iron Rangers, Sioux City’s biggest rivalry was with the Waterloo Black Hawks, a rivalry so heated it often erupted into violence between players and fans alike. The United States Hockey League, in which the Musketeers played, became a junior league in 1979, featuring teams with players aged from 17 to 20. A new head coach was hired in 1981 and took on a new motto: “worst to first.” They came through, winning first place in the league that year, earning them the Clark Cup. They won the cup again in 1986 at a national championship on home ice, sending the sellout crowd at the Municipal Auditorium into a frenzy. The Musketeers would not win the Clark Cup again until 2002.

 

Today the Sioux City Musketeers play at the Tyson Event Center. Over 18 players from the team have gone on to play in the National Hockey League (NHL). The team still remains popular in the city and the games are well attended: each year over 2000 people attend the games from Sioux City and beyond.

 

Donor: Terry Gottburg